I'd like to thank Balthazar23, Antar23, werewolfXZ, damadape, TheNarratingMan, WraithNX01, Vahktang, flixus, Lynix, TripsToTheRescue, fredfred and InquisitorCOC for betareading.

Chapter 34: The Visit

Kingston upon Thames, London, Britain, July 19th, 1996

After getting out of the Knight Bus near the Grangers' home, Lavender Brown took a deep breath. Hermione was back. Safe. And not in St Mungo's getting treated for dark curses or worse. But she had suffered through a terrible ordeal. Lavender shuddered just thinking about how Hermione must have felt. Especially after reading the Daily Prophet.

Of course you couldn't trust everything you read in the Prophet - Lavender knew that very well, ever since that article about her aunt - but not even the Prophet would dare to make up too many things when Dumbledore himself was involved. And the Potters. And Mr Black. So, Hermione had been hunted by a wyvern! And pirates!

Lavender had looked up wyverns before coming to visit her best friend. The beasts were almost as dangerous as dragons! Wizard-killers! And Hermione had been trapped on an island occupied by Barbary Coast pirates! Everyone knew about those pirates! If they had caught Hermione…

Lavender shook her head. She didn't want to think about what could've happened. This wasn't some novel where the heroine would be saved at the last moment by the hero. Or where the pirate turned out to be a handsome exiled prince who fought for his birthright and had fallen in love with the main character. This was the real world, where witches who got kidnapped by pirates ended up enslaved in the Ottoman Empire.

Hermione had been very lucky to escape such a fate. Especially with Potter. Lavender didn't doubt a second that the whole 'duelled for Hermione' was one of the things the Prophet had made up; Potter was a good duellist - for a student. There was no way he could've duelled a pirate captain and won. Although… the Prophet hadn't claimed he had won.

She shook her head again and continued walking towards the Grangers' home. Hermione needed her support now; that was all that counted.

And she would tell Lavender what had happened anyway. Hermione once wrote her a two-foot letter about a trip to a muggle library, after all.

"Excuse me? Are you a friend of the Grangers?"

What? Lavender stopped on the path to the Granger's front door and turned around. A middle-aged man was smiling at her. Even for a muggle, he was oddly dressed - he must be colour-blind to match that shirt with those pants. His hair was styled nicely, though. He could've stepped out of the latest Teen Witch Weekly article.

"I was wondering if you knew their daughter," the man went on.

Wait! Lavender narrowed her eyes. Uncoordinated muggle clothes? Perfectly styled hair? She sniffed the air. And a whiff of 'Eau de Dragon' - Half of Gryfindor loved that horrible cologne; it had taken her two weeks to get Ron to stop using it. "I'm not talking to the press!" she snapped.

His eyes widened. Then he smiled. "Oh, you do know her, then!" He took a step towards her. "I've got a few questions…"

Lavender glared at him. "Go away, or I'll tell Mr Potter you're hounding Hermione! And Dumbledore!"

He paled in response. "I'm not doing anything illegal!"

"You can tell that to the Aurors!"

She whirled and walked to the door. Really! What were they thinking?

Mrs Granger opened the door after five seconds. "Lavender! Come in! Hermione! Lavender's here!"

Lavender glanced over her shoulder and winced - the wizard at the fence was taking notes. With a quill.

"If I'm in the next article…"

"What did you say, Lavender?"

"The man out there is from the Prophet, I think," she said.

"Oh, no. He's from Witch Weekly. He tried to get an interview earlier."

Oh.

Lavender didn't know if that was better or worse.

"Lavender!" Hermione stood on the stairs.

"Hermione!" Lavender rushed up and hugged her friend. "I was so worried!"

"We all were," Mrs Granger told them.

"Come!" Hermione took her hand. "Let's go to my room."

"I'll bring you some tea and scones."

"Thanks, Mum!"

Hermione didn't quite drag her to her room but probably only because Lavender kept up. As soon as they were inside, Hermione sighed and sat down on her bed. "I'm so glad you came."

"Of course I came!" she replied, sitting down next to Hermione. Her friend looked good. A little tanned - less than she expected. Her hair was looking, well - as expected for a day when Hermione couldn't use spells on it. And she was wearing a new sundress. And muggle makeup. "You're looking good:"

"Thank you." Hermione smiled. "Did you read the article in the Prophet?" She held up the newspaper.

"Yes, I did."

Her friend scowled. "It's full of lies and speculation! I can't believe they dared to print this!"

"That's the Prophet for you." Lavender leaned forward.

"Well, they were right about us being trapped on a pirate island. But we didn't kill the wyvern with a dark curse! We trapped it with perfectly legal spells! And it took a lot more than just pointing our wands at it and aiming for the eyes!"

"You killed the wyvern?" Lavender blurted out. Her friend had actually killed a wizard-killer creature?"

"Harry and I did, yes."

"How?" Lavender boggled at Hermione. A wyvern's hide, as the Prophet's article had pointed out in a sidebar, was resistant to magic like a dragon's.

"We lured it into a trap," Hermione told her. And explained. About the pit. The spikes. And the tree trunks. And the execution.

Lavender gaped. That was… "...incredible!" she breathed. Hermione was a heroine for that!

Hermione smiled. "Our solution combined magic and muggle physics to set up a pure muggle attack, bypassing the magical resistance of the wyvern," Hermione said.

Lavender nodded. "And how did you lure it into your trap?"

Hermione frowned. "Harry played bait. I didn't want him to, but he pointed out that I was better at summoning him to safety and that his clothes were more sturdy and less prone to rip instead of dragging him along."

"Weren't you wearing your robes?" Lavender asked. She remembered that both Hermione and Potter had been wearing robes the day they had disappeared.

"We turned those into mattresses and sleeping bags. We used dried grass to make them more comfortable." Hermione blushed a little. "It was too hot for robes, anyway."

"Ah." Lavender nodded. "And you wore your muggle summer clothes." She wouldn't have trusted those clothes not to tear up when used to summon someone, either.

"Yes."

"Wait! Did you want to play bait?"

"Harry had already played bait - he distracted the wyvern - when it attacked us the first time," Hermione told her.

Lavender shook her head. "You're crazy even for a Gryffindor."

"I felt bad for letting him risk his life again. We were supposed to share the dangers," Hermione protested. "Anyway…"

They were interrupted by Hermione's mum bringing them a tray with tea and scones.

While she was buttering up one half of a scone, Hermione went on: "Anyway, once the wyvern was stuck on the spikes, it was pretty much over. We did cast curses at it to speed the process up, but it would've died anyway."

Ew! Watching a beast slowly die, even a wyvern… Lavender shuddered. "And how big was it? The Prophet claimed it was as big as the Horntail from the Tournament." And that had been the biggest dragons of them all. Lavender would have died if she had had to face such a monster.

Hermione wrinkled her nose at that for a moment. "No, I don't think so. It was smaller. The mouth could open this wide." She spread her arms.

Lavender gasped again. "It could've swallowed you whole!"

"Probably not entirely," Hermione replied. "We found the remains of a witch the wyvern had eaten - her arm and wand had been bitten off."

"And you wanted to play bait? And trusted Potter to summon you in time?" Lavender stared at her.

"Harry wouldn't have let me get killed."

Wait… Lavender narrowed her eyes. "What happened between you and… 'Harry'?"

Hermione blushed. "We, ah… We're a couple now."

Lavender stared at her. "You and… Harry Potter?" The two of them had hated each other for years!

Hermione shrugged - but it was forced; Lavender could tell. "We were alone on an island, we only had each other, we killed a wyvern, we talked…" She spread her hands. "It just happened."

"What happened? Did you kiss?" She leaned forward. This was… this was incredible!

"Yes, we did," Hermione said. "We kissed for the first time after we killed the wyvern. But we didn't become a couple then; we needed a few more days." She was still blushing.

"Oh!" Lavender licked her lips. Should she ask? Well, Hermione had asked her the same when Lavender had started going out with Ron. "Did you… sleep together?"

The blush grew stronger. "Yes, we did."

"Ohhh!" Now that was… straight out of a novel! A witch and a wizard, stranded on a desert island, falling in love… "How was it?" Lavender.

"Ah, it wasn't exactly a normal…" Hermione waved her hand. "I mean, we were stranded on an island, we were hunted by the wyvern, then the pirates… We were very stressed."

Lavender cocked her head at her best friend.

"It was great," Hermione said in a whisper, smiling widely.

"Are you going to visit him before Hogwarts?" Lavender asked, then grimaced - what a stupid question! Of course Hermione would visit her boyfriend!

"Later today," Hermione confirmed. "I can also do magic at his place - it was very hard not to style my hair with my wand today."

Lavender nodded in sympathy. To spend the entire summer without being able to cast spells… muggleborns had it hard. "So that's why you're wearing the sundress?" It was light and short but didn't look too muggle. And it showed off Hermione's figure.

Hermione nodded. "Mrs Potter is a muggleborn, so it should be OK. And they have seen me in shorts and a top, anyway."

"Ah. Are you going to cast hairstyling charms on the Knight Bus?" The bus moved so violently that casting any spell was a challenge. You wouldn't want to arrive after a miscast spell ruined your hair.

Hermione snorted. "Of course! Compared to being chased by pirates on brooms, that'll be easy."

"Chased by pirates on brooms?" Lavender blinked again. "You mean that part of the article was true?"

Hermione Granger frowned at her best friend. "The only kernel of truth in that article was that we did fight pirates. And they were chasing us on brooms more often than not. But there was no duel over me!" she spat. "Really, as if we had been as stupid as to duel the pirates!"

"Of course not!" Lavender said - a little too quickly.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Harry's a decent duellist, but this wasn't some match or tournament. We carefully planned our attack on the pirate village and lured the majority of the pirates away."

"You attacked them?" her friend gasped.

"They attacked us first!" Hermione defended herself. "We were just spying on them to determine their intentions when they attacked us in our hideout - and chased us through the jungle!"

Lavender balled both hands into fists and pressed them against her mouth. "Merlin's beard!"

"We escaped them without getting hurt," Hermione reassured her. "And when they found us again, we escaped again, and Harry even managed to take a broom from them."

"How did you escape without brooms? Did you learn how to apparate?"

"No. I levitated a plank, and we rode it while Harry kept the pirates away. And it was at night, so we only had to flee a short distance before they lost us in the jungle," Hermione explained. "They were mostly casting blindly and blowing up the jungle."

Lavender looked pale. "They were blowing up the jungle?"

"Yes. But we escaped them." Hermione pursed her lips. "And then we struck back. We attacked at night. Harry sank their ship and lured most of them away on a broom. Then he returned, and we sent giant rats and birds into the village to distract the remaining pirates while we broke into their prison, rescued Céline, a little girl they had kidnapped, stole one of their fishing boats which could pass through their wards and another broom and escaped the island."

Lavender was gaping at her for a second without saying anything. "That's… that's…" She shook her head. "That's like in an adventure novel! The article is far more… the article makes it look less impressive!"

"From a certain point of view, maybe," Hermione said. "But really, we carefully planned and prepared everything."

"I thought Dumbledore and the Potters rescued you!"

"Technically, they did - we were still on the ocean when they arrived. But we had already escaped the island's wards and weathered the storm and were on our way to the coast of Africa." Hermione shrugged. "The pirates were forced to stop their chase when we passed through the wards, so the odds of them finding us again were low, and we had two brooms to fly eastwards. I think we would've made it just fine." Looking at Lavender's expression, Hermione quickly added: "But we were still very relieved to be finally found, of course - and to finally eat something other than coconuts and fish. I can't even see coconuts any more without wanting to throw up, I'm telling you!" That was a slight exaggeration, of course. But she was thoroughly sick of the taste. Just thinking of eating a Bounty made her shudder. 'The taste of paradise', hah!

"Oh, no! You almost starved!"

"No, no." Hermione shook her head. "We had enough calories. And fish provided protein. But we would've had trouble with malnutrition in the long run." She winced. "And I needed to cast charms against diarrhoea on the both of us."

"Ew." Lavender made a face.

Hermione chuckled. "That's something you never read in a novel about getting stranded on an island."

"No. They always describe how you build a house out of palm trees with all sorts of charms to make it even better than your home," Lavender agreed.

Hermione snorted. "We had to hide from the wyvern, so we built an underground bunker. And we didn't have many useful charms. We mostly used Cutting and Summoning Charms to create furniture. And the Engorgement Charm on food and some of our tools. And, of course, the Water-Making Charm." She smiled. In hindsight, building a home with Harry had been nice.

"And the Contraception Charm!" Lavender grinned at her.

Hermione blushed at that memory. "I didn't have to cast that charm very often," she said, pouting a little. "It wasn't as if we, ah, spent our time shagging."

"No, you spent your time fighting a wyvern and a gang of pirates," Lavender retorted with a smile. Then she gasped. "Oh…"

Hermione shook her head. "It's alright to joke about it." She frowned. "I can't stand how everyone treats me as if I were about to have a nervous breakdown at the slightest provocation." She was fine. Harry was fine. They hadn't been captured, they hadn't been seriously hurt, and they hadn't killed anyone.

Lavender nodded. "They're just so worried about you."

"I know." Hermione pressed her lips together. If she hadn't gone into Knockturn Alley, her parents wouldn't have had to worry about her for weeks. But it had all turned out well. Very well, actually, considering how her relationship with Harry had changed. If given a choice, she probably would do it again if that meant being with Harry… She suppressed the guilt she felt at that selfish thought. "It's just… We were there, not them. And we made it through fine."

"I'd have nightmares for weeks after this!" Lavender said.

Hermione winced.

And her friend gasped once more. "You're having nightmares?"

"Not really bad ones," Hermione said. "I'm sure they'll pass."

Once she could see Harry again.

Godric's Hollow, Devon, Britain, July 19th, 1996

Harry Potter looked around, wand in hand, searching for anything he might have missed. Nothing behind the bed - nothing under the bed; he had checked. The desk was clear, as was the armoire. No surprises on the shelves, either - though he'd best double-check.

But otherwise, his room was spotless. Flawless. Wait! There was a stain of sorts on the carpet - a part was a shade darker than the rest. He cast a cleaning charm at it, covering the spot in soapy bubbles, then followed up with a drying charm.

And frowned - the spot was now lighter than the rest. Sighing, he started cleaning the whole carpet, using Levitation Charms to move his furniture around. Just as he was putting down his bed next to his armoire, the door opened.

Harry whirled, dropping the bed in the process, and… Oh. It was Mum. "Hi, Mum!" He beamed at her while he quickly lowered his wand.

"Hi, Harry. What are you doing?"

"Uh… cleaning my room a little."

She raised her eyebrows at that. "'A little'? You are shampooing the carpet!"

"It was dirty," he explained.

Mum looked at him, then at the room. "How much time did you spend 'cleaning up a little'?"

"Uh…" He quickly checked his watch. "An hour?"

She shook her head. "Harry… I doubt Hermione will check for dust under your bed."

"I just don't want her to get a bad... a wrong impression when she visits," he told her, subtly moving his wand to finish cleaning the carpet. Her parents were coming to dinner, too!

Mum frowned some more. She drew her own wand and put the bed back where it belonged, then sat down on it, apparently not caring about the soap buds covering the carpet beneath her. "Harry… You've hexed Hermione how many times? And you are worried about a little dust in the carpet?"

He felt his cheeks flush. "It's not the same! We've talked about that - about the whole hexing thing, I mean. And the potions. And the muggle traps. That's not a problem any more."

Mum tilted her head at him.

"Really, we've talked that out," he repeated himself. "Made our peace with each other."

"And it only took you getting stranded together on a pirate island with a man-eating wyvern hunting you. I'm impressed."

He glared at Mum, then pouted when he didn't have a comeback to that, and she smiled. "Yes," he said after a moment.

Mum nodded. "And now you're worried about her getting a bad impression of your room."

He firmly nodded. "Yes." Who wouldn't be worried in Harry's place?

She sighed. "Harry, she's seen you at your worst - for years, mostly at Hogwarts, and I blame James and Sirius for that - and at your best on the island."

Harry blushed again. "You think I did well on the island?"

"You survived a situation that would've killed many adult wizards and witches," Mum said. Harry beamed. "You also took far more risks than most people would've taken," she added.

He pressed his lips together and hunched over a little, then straightened. "We had to. We couldn't just hide. And we couldn't leave Céline with the pirates."

"I blame James and Sirius for this as well," Mum muttered. "Why couldn't you look to Peter and Remus for role models?"

"What? Dad also thinks we took too many risks," Harry protested.

"Because you're our son. If you were his friend, he would be praising you, I bet."

"Oh."

Mum shook her head. "Anyway, do you really think Hermione would be put off if your carpet isn't spotless?"

He looked away. "It's just… it was simpler when we were on the island. We, I didn't have to worry about cleaning up and… everything else."

"Harry…" He looked up, and she nodded at him. "Are you two a couple?"

He froze for a second, then nodded. "Yes, we are." With a sigh, he added: "At least I hope we are. Now that we're back home…" He shrugged.

"You're afraid that she'll dump you?"

He tensed. "I'm a little worried," he admitted. "I mean, I'm sure it wasn't just a reaction to stress and danger - we talked about that. Hermione agreed, too. But now that we're no longer alone…" He sat down on the bed as well, next to her, then cast a Drying Charm on the carpet. "I just want to make a good impression."

"Harry…" She trailed off again, then wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "What exactly happened on the island? With you two, I mean. Not with the pirates."

Oh. "We used protection!" he blurted out, staring at her. Then he felt his stomach drop.

"I guess that answers my question," Mum replied in a dry tone.

"Sorry," he mumbled. This wasn't going well. Not at all.

"Don't be sorry. I expected this. Well, not with Hermione, and I expected it to happen at Hogwarts, not on a pirate island. But you two are teenagers, and I know how teenagers are - I was one myself, after all. That's why the Contraception Charm is taught at Hogwarts." She squeezed his shoulder.

Harry wasn't about to ask about Mum and Dad and Hogwarts. But he felt a little better.

"And it's natural to feel insecure. You should've seen your father when we started dating." Mum laughed.

Harry really wasn't going to ask about his parents and Hogwarts. He cleared his throat. "So… it's OK?"

"Yes, of course." She smiled at him. "Just… relax, alright? If she loves you, she won't be dumping you because you have dust on your shelves."

"What? I cleaned them!" He jumped up.

Mum laughed again. After a moment, Harry did as well.

The Potters' house looked perfectly normal from the outside, Hermione Granger found as she stepped out of the Knight Bus. Old and rustic - but it fit the rest of the village. She could tell as she looked around. Godric's Hollow was an old village, lacking more modern buildings as far as she could see. And, unlike, say, Ottery St Catchpole, which only housed three magical families, it was an actual mixed muggle-magical village with a substantial percentage of witches and wizards amongst the residents. Pretty much the only one in Britain, according to the book she'd read in Muggle Studies.

And she was stalling, she realised. She wasn't here to sight-see. She was here to visit Harry. Her boyfriend. And to do some magic. Though that was a secondary concern. And her parents would visit for dinner, which was another concern. But she could handle this.

She took a deep breath and bit her lower lip as she ran a hand through her hair - she hadn't quite risked casting any charms during her ride, having held on to her seat with both hands. Contrary to her boasts to Lavender, it had been worse than getting chased on a broom. She probably looked like a mess with her fraying ponytail. At least her sundress had survived the trip without getting rumpled, though perhaps she should...

She scoffed. She had faced a wyvern, pirates and a tropical storm and survived everything thrown at her. She could do this! She raised her chin and straightened, then stepped up to the gate at the edge of the Potters' yard. It opened easily - well-oiled hinges, she noticed - and it was just a few yards to the door. Not a real drive, as far as she could tell. Didn't the muggle neighbours wonder about the lack of a car?

She was doing it again! She clenched her teeth and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" she heard Harry yell inside. A moment later, the door was pulled open, and he was there, smiling at her. "Hermione! I mean, hi!"

"Hi, Harry," she replied, smiling as well. He was looking good. Robes, of course, but nicely cut - much more elegant than the school robes. And his hair was styled. Clean-shaved, too. "You look nice," she said before she could help herself. How vapid!

"Uh, thanks." He nodded. "You too. You look nice, I mean. Nice dress. It suits you."

She felt herself blush a little. "Thank you." She ran a hand down her dress. "It's just a sundress."

"It looks nice on you," he repeated himself. After a moment, he asked: "Did you have a nice trip?"

"I took the Knight Bus."

He winced. "Ah, I should've known that - I knew it. Sorry. I didn't think."

"Aren't you going to invite your girlfriend inside, idiot?" Hermione heard a girl's voice from inside the house.

Harry scowled as he turned. "Shut up, Rose!"

Right, his sister. Hermione didn't know the girl well - due to Harry and her feud, she had kept her distance from his sibling.

He turned back to her, flushing. "Anyway, ah, please come in!" He stepped to the side and gestured at her.

She nodded as she entered the house and followed Harry to the living room. She had seen it already when she had arrived through the Floo Network yesterday, but she hadn't really taken a good look at the rest of the house.

"Hello, Hermione." Harry's sister nodded at her from where she was sitting at the table in the living room, apparently reading a wizarding magazine. She was smiling widely, too. "So, you're Harry's girlfriend now."

"Yes," Hermione replied with a frown - then blinked when Rose looked surprised.

"What, really?" Rose looked from her to Harry and back. "You're serious?"

She hadn't known? Hermione looked at Harry and raised her eyebrows.

"I told Mum," Harry replied. He shrugged. "Didn't see the need to tell her." He nodded at his sister.

"Ah." Hermione nodded. Harry had told his mother, but not his sister. She didn't have any experience with siblings, so she didn't know if that meant anything.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Rose stood.

"Why should I?" Harry shot back.

"I'm your sister!"

"So? It's none of your business who I date!"

"You hypocrite! What about Seamus?" Rose glared at him.

"Seamus?" Hermione asked.

"You didn't hear?" Rose turned to Hermione. "He asked me out last year, and Harry flipped out."

"I didn't flip out about him asking you out!" Harry protested. "I hexed him because he… talked nasty about you!"

"What?" Rose looked confused. "He talked bad about me?"

That made not much sense. Unless… "You mean he talked about Rose in sexist terms?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. "Yes!"

Probably like most boys, then, Hermione thought.

"And he was the only one talking like that?" Rose asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"He was the only one talking about you like that," Harry told her.

"Did he actually do that in your presence?" Hermione shook her head. She knew Seamus wasn't the brightest of their year, but this…

"I was, ah… He didn't know I was there," Harry explained.

"Did you use Dad's cloak?" Rose asked.

"No!" Harry shook his head. "Anyway, I hexed him for that. Not because he asked you out."

"You're still the reason he dropped me!"

"You want to go out with him?" Harry scoffed. "Just go and ask him, then!"

"I don't want to go out with him! But whether or not I do is my decision!"

"And whether or not I hex a guy for rude language about my family is my decision!" Harry shot back.

Someone was coming - Hermione heard a door open nearby.

She turned at the same time Harry did, wands in hand.

"Oh. Mum." Harry Potter lowered his wand. "Hermione arrived!"

"So I see." Mum glanced at him, then at her. "Hello, Miss Granger."

"Hello, Mrs Potter. Thank you for inviting me." Hermione stowed her wand.

Mum smiled. "You're welcome. I'm glad your parents agreed to let you come."

Why wouldn't they agree? Harry wondered privately.

Hermione frowned. "I generally don't require parental permission to visit a friend."

Harry nodded emphatically.

"But your current circumstances aren't exactly normal, are they?" Mum asked.

"Oh, yes!" Rose butted in. "We've never had a visit from Harry's girlfriend before. Of course, he never had a girlfriend before, so..."

Harry glared at her. "I've had a girlfriend before! Katie Bell!"

"A single Hogsmeade weekend doesn't count!" Rose shot back.

"It was two weekends!" Harry corrected her. They'd even kissed. Once. On the mouth.

"She dumped you on the second because you were an idiot!"

What the…

"Harry! Rose!" Mum shook her head. "We have a guest here. Please behave."

And Hermione was giggling! "Sorry, I don't have a sibling," she said. "I'm not used to this."

Harry nodded at her. "Be glad. Little sisters are the worst."

"No, older brothers are the worst."

Mum cleared her throat. "I said: Behave." She turned to Hermione. "Would you like some tea?"

"That would be lovely, thanks."

"Yeah, thanks, Mum," Harry said. "Come!" He turned to Hermione. "I'll show you the house!"

"Don't go into my room!" Rose snapped.

"Of course not!" Harry snapped back. "I don't want to kill Hermione!" He led her back into the hallway.

"Kill me?" Hermoine asked,

"Oh, nothing. Just getting back at Rose. Though she does keep Potions ingredients in her room, so it smells funny at times."

"Ah."

Harry opened the door on the left. "This is Dad's office. He rarely works here, so Mum usually uses it for paperwork for her job, but, technically, it's his."

"Oh? Tax reasons?" Hermione asked.

"What?" Tax reasons? What did she mean? Harry shook his head. "No. It was grandfather's office, and great-grandfather's before him, so it's Dad's now. Even though he doesn't need it, and Mum does."

"Ah." Hermione pursed her lips for a moment.

"It's just tradition," Harry said. "Eldest child inherits the house. So, this will be mine one day." He glanced at her, trying to guess what she thought about that.

"And what about Rose?" Hermione asked.

"I'll have to pay her out, according to Mum." Harry shrugged. "Well, I could also leave it to her and get the money, I guess. We'll both have our own places when that happens, anyway, so who knows?" He usually added '...and our own grandkids', but he wasn't sure how Hermione would react to that joke. Or not joke.

"Yes. My grandparents on my mother's side own a house in Stevenage - Hertfordshire. They joke about me inheriting it since my parents won't leave London," Hermione said.

"Ah." Harry nodded. "Well, you could live there and apparate anywhere."

"I know. But I'm not going to plan for my grandparents' deaths."

Harry suppressed the little bout of jealousy. "All my grandparents died before I was born."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Hermione said.

"I never knew them, so…" He shrugged. "It hurt Mum and Dad, of course. And Auntie Petunia."

"Your muggle aunt."

"Yes." She had remembered. "I need to visit Dudley, too. They were told about our return, already, but…" He shrugged again.

"Yes," she agreed.

For a moment, they stood there in the office, Hermione looking at the books on the shelves. "Mum has her library in her laboratory, in the cellar," Harry told her. "Those are just… well, basic stuff and tax and law books or something."

"Ah." Hermione licked her lips. They shone a little in the sunlight. "Can we see that room as well?"

"Of course!" Harry smiled. "It's perfectly safe unless Mum's testing a new spell! Anyway - here's the kitchen." He pointed to the back of the house. "And the dining room or salon, as Sirius calls it, is on the other side." Neither was very interesting, in his opinion. But the stairs leading to the cellar were right next to the kitchen.

"I'm almost done with the tea," Mum told them as they walked past.

"I'm showing Hermione your lab!" Harry called back.

"Don't touch anything!"

"We won't!" He scoffed as he opened the door to the stairs. "Really, as if we didn't know any better."

Hermione nodded again.

Harry touched the thick, runes-covered door below with his wand, and it swung open. "It's keyed to our wands," he explained. "So we can enter in an emergency."

"Smart," Hermione commented - though she was looking at the tall, long shelves packed with books. "Extension Charms." It wasn't a question.

"Of course. The lab is bigger than the house," Harry said. "And it also has better protections."

"Oh." Hermione bit her lower lip. "Did your Mum… ever need them?"

"No." There had been a few sticky situations, but the normal protections on the testing area had held. No need to mention that, though. "Anyway, that's the lab. So, there's only the first floor left. My room is there," he said.

"Ah." She smiled. "I'm curious about your room."

Harry forced himself to smile and tried to remember if he had missed any spot when he had cleaned his room earlier. "I'll show you. After you." He gestured to the stairs.

The dress showed off her legs, he noticed. Perhaps even better than the short shorts she had worn on the island. Maybe it was the sandals she wore? They had short but noticeable heels.

He was still debating this when they reached the stairs to the first floor.

Standing in the hallway, letting Harry pass her on his way to the kitchen to fetch the tea and snacks his mother had promised, Hermione Granger clenched her teeth, then forced herself to slowly let her breath out. So many books - priceless tomes amongst them; she had recognised several tomes that she had seen in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library - and she couldn't touch any of them!

Well, she could've tried, but if a Spellcrafter told you not to touch anything in their workshop, you didn't touch anything. Not if you didn't want to risk triggering powerful protections. Or half-crafted curses St Mungo's staff had no idea how to reverse. The stories Hermione had heard about such things from Professor McGonagall after her own attempt to modify a spell back in fourth year…

Harry returned with a tray loaded with finger sandwiches, scones and a tea set, and she dropped the thought and followed him up the stairs. He cut a dashing figure in his robes, though Hermione preferred him in muggle clothes. Trousers just emphasised his bum better than robes.

"We're now in my room, Mum!" Harry yelled once they reached the hallway of the first floor. "Which is here," he added in a lower voice and opened the door across the hallway. "Mum and Dad's bedroom is there, Rose's there, and the last door leads to the guest rooms."

'Guest rooms'? Extension Charms again, Hermione assumed.

"So, that's my room," Harry said, smiling at her as he put the tray down on his desk. "What do you think?"

She looked around. Fewer and smaller bookshelves than in her room, but more than in Lavender's. The desk looked antique - it was a secretary desk. The bed looked more modern, though, Not Ikea, but it wasn't a canopy bed. A broom was leaning against the wall in a corner, next to the window. There was a massive old armoire, and a snowy owl was… was the bird glaring at her? Apparently, it was since it flared its wings in a threat display next.

"Hedwig! Hermione's a guest!" Harry snapped. "Behave!" He turned to look at Hermione. "Sorry. I don't know what her problem is."

Neither did Hermione. She hadn't ever hexed the owl, and the only time she remembered the owl getting affected by their feud was when Harry sent her a spelt letter… Hermione frowned. "Is she blaming me for the blue paint?"

"What? No, that was my mistake!" Harry protested. "Hedwig! You know that wasn't her fault."

But the owl kept barking at her.

"Hedwig! Hermione is a guest! My guest!" Harry blinked. "She won't hurt you. Or me. I promise!"

Now the owl glared at him, then turned away.

Hermione snorted. "Is she trying to protect you from me?"

"She would have attacked you in that case," Harry said. "Or tried to. But she probably tried to threaten you. She is protective. Once, Rose tried to sneak into my room and pour some colouring potion on my hair, and Hedwig chased her back into her room. Rose spilt it all over herself!"

Or the owl had a problem with colouring magic. Hermione smiled anyway and checked the books on the shelves, tilting her head to the side to read the titles on the spine.

"Those are just my books," Harry said. "Mostly school books."

She smirked at him and pulled out '101 Hexes to Brighten Your Day'. "That's not in the curriculum."

He actually blushed. "Ah… that was a gift. From Sirius."

Hermione wished she had people gifting her magical books. Well, money worked as well, but the stores in Wizarding Britain didn't accept muggle gift certificates. She pushed the book back. "It's a nice selection. Even some muggle books." Enid Blyton. And Dickens.

"Those are from Mum or Auntie," Harry said. "Rose has the rest. And all the Potions notes."

Ah. Sharing books with your sibling… Well, there were advantages to being an only child.

"So… what do you think?" Harry smiled at her.

"It looks nice." She nodded at the signed Holyhead Harpies poster on the wall. "Fewer Quidditch Posters than I expected."

He blushed again. "Well, that was a gift as well."

"From Sirius?"

"Yes. And please don't ask him how he got it," Harry told her.

She blinked, then nodded. "I won't." She looked around, glancing at the trunk at the foot of the bed. It looked like a normal room. Not as large and lavish as she had expected.

Harry cleared his throat. "So…"

She nodded, then lowered her voice. "How are you doing?"

"Fine!" he replied. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he added: "I had a small nightmare. Nothing serious."

Ah. She nodded. "I had a nightmare as well." She pondered asking him about it but decided against it.

For a moment, they stood in silence. Then Harry turned to his desk. "So, tea?"

"Thank you," Hermione told him.

"Wait a sec." Harry swished his wand, and the tray floated towards them.

Right. They could do magic here without worrying about the Ministry. Hermione smiled and cast a hairstyling charm on herself before picking up a cup of tea.

Then they sat both down on his bed. "So… you told your mother about us?" Hermione asked. "But not your sister?"

"Yes," Harry confirmed. "I, ah, told Ron as well." He licked his lips and glanced at her.

She nodded, which seemed to reassure him. "I told Lavender."

"Ah." He suddenly chuckled. "I bet they'll compare notes."

"Probably, yes." Hermione hadn't gone into details with Lavender. Not much. "I also told Mum."

"Ah." He licked his lips again.

"She's fine with it." Well, she had asked if Hermione had used protection, which she had, and that had been it - they had talked about sex long before this, after all; her parents weren't naive or stupid.

"So's Mum."

"Good." Hermione was relieved. She didn't know what she would've done if Harry's parents would have objected to their relationship. "So…" She wet her lips. How to ask about this? 'Are we still a couple?' sounded incredibly bad. Asking about their future would be presuming too much. Probably.

"So…" Harry looked nervous as well. And damn cute.

Hermione pressed her lips together, silently cursed herself, then leaned towards him until their lips met.

His enthusiastic reaction answered her question.